When Jim Dawson with Synergy Sign was asked to design and install a sign for his client’s new luxury hotel, event center and Amish Country Theater complex, he knew it had to be big enough to draw attention from nearby State Route 39. At 24’x24’x4′, the Amish Country sign ended up being the largest sign Dawson had ever built. He used steel, concrete and Precision Board HDU to accomplish this huge task. Read on to find out how Jim and the team at Synergy Sign constructed the Precision Board HDU part of this behemoth sign.

Six signs in total were routed from PBLT-18 Precision Board HDU, with three for each side of the frame. Two signs were 4’x14’x1″ and one was 3’x14’x1″. Jim routed wood grain texture into the signs and then made a 45 degree bevel around the letters to give the illusion that they were popping out. The Amish Country green background was done with a second layer of 1” thick Precision Board.

Jim and his team created galvanized steel boxes that were 6″ wide and screwed and glued the Precision Board signs to both sides. He used the same steel beams and fabricated mounts for the LED sign.

Dawson says, “the bands on the posts that look like steel straps were actually made out of PBLT-30 Precision Board.” He adds, “giant oversize rivets were cut into a dome on the router and we used 4 inch thick PBLT-18. Then we made them faceted by grinding them into the surface with our sanding bench.” Jim attached the rivets to the “steel straps” to complete the look.

Dawson used several different paints for this job, including Novacolor metallic paints for the straps, Sherwin Williams on the concrete and Kemiko paint on the sign faces.

Design to completion on the Amish Country sign was six months with about three days of routing time for the Precision Board HDU on their MultiCam 3000 CNC using X-Edge router bits. Jim says, “we had twelve 4’x8′ sheets of Precision Board that would have needed to be carved. Because it would have taken 15-16 hours per sheet to carve in 3d, we instead used the Rapid Texture feature in our Enroute Software.” (Ed note: You can read more about Rapid Texture HERE) Jim says it made sense to do it that way given that the texture didn’t need to be super detailed, it just had to look good from a distance.

Jim wrote a lengthier article for the October issue of Signs of the Times detailing the entire fabrication process, including creating the steel posts. That article can be read HERE.

We think that Jim Dawson and his team do some really excellent work. Synergy Sign & Graphics has a highly experienced staff whose backgrounds include graphic design, marketing, trade-show design, print media, branding, point of purchase design, fulfillment, and more. Check out their website or give them a call at (330) 878-7646 to see about your next project!

Coastal Enterprises offers free samples of Precision Board HDU. Already have a project in mind for our material? Request a quote and get started today. Sign up for our monthly blog roundup so you don’t miss any of our informative blogs. Have a special project fabricated with Precision Board HDU and want to know if it could be featured in a blog on our website? Give us a call at 800-845-0745 or drop us an email with details. We’d love to hear from you!

You can view a wide selection of in-process photos below from Synergy Sign’s fabrication of the Amish Country sign.